Kalp destek cihazlarının tasarımı ve eniyileştirilmesi: iHeart VAD ve iATVA

Heart failure, some congenital heart defects, and some circulatory disorders are diseases which are treated or alleviated with mechanical circulatory support devices. Even though the ideal therapy for heart failure is a cardiac transplant, due to the donor shortage, Left Ventricular Assist Devices has emerged. As a mechanical pump, an LVAD pumps the blood from the left ventricle to the aorta for supporting the heart. Similarly, for the treatment of Fontan patients with a univentricular heart, some experimental mechanical circulatory support devices have been proposed in the literature. These devices are called Fontan Ventricle Assist Device (FVAD). This work comprised the design, development, and experiments of İstanbul Heart VAD (iHeart VAD) and integrated Aortic-Turbine Venous-Assist (iATVA) which are a novel centrifugal LVAD and a novel FVAD (a centrifugal turbine-pump couple), respectively. Both devices were designed following the turbomachinery theory. For the iHeart VAD, this work includes computer simulations, hydraulics tests, blood tests and acute animal tests. For the iATVA, this work focuses on hydraulic tests and cardiovascular mock-loop tests. For both devices, chronical animal tests are planned for the near future.